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RESEARCH  & FINDING TOOLS

Writing a research paper can be challenging. With the right tools and resources, the process can be less complicated.  The resources below have been developed to help improve the process.  Contact the
 Reference Librarians for further assistance or help.

Getting Started  |  Finding Material   |  Evaluation/ Preparation  |  Tools  |  Help
 

Getting Started

 

Remember the first rule of using a library: Help is Always Available! Ask at the Reference Desk for assistance or
for an appointment with a subject specialist.

Writing the paper

  • Understanding the Assignment - The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment.
  • Brainstorming -  Techniques that will help you start writing a paper and continue writing through the challenges of the revising process.
  • Argument - Define what an argument is and explain why you need one in most of your academic essays.
  • Evidence -  help you decide what counts as evidence, put evidence to work in your writing
  • College Writing -   Help you figure out what your college instructors expect when they give you a writing assignment

 Writing Assistance from the PVAMU Writing Center 
                 Writing Techniques -  Documentation Styles - Research, Quoting, Citing Paraphrasing
                 Literary Analysis Essay -  Grammar Mechanics and more !          

Finding Material

Evaluation & Preparation

Copyright -  John B. Coleman Library observes the United States copyright legislation (title 17, U.S. Code). If you need help in interpreting copyright please see the Copyright Office Website for assistance.

Evaluating Print Sources -  Strategies to evaluate secondary printed sources—books, journal articles, magazines, etc.

How do you determine if a book is "scholarly?" 

Is Your Journal Scholarly?

Finding Peer Reviewed Material   -  Look ALSO  for the  Peer Review icon  Selected Peer Reviewed articles  when selecting a resource

Plagiarism - What plagiarism is and  steps to avoid plagiarizing.

Editing and Proofreading - It's hard to edit or proofread a paper that you've just finished writing

Is Your Web Site Credible?  -  Finding information on the World Wide Web is one thing, trusting it is another. You must be a critical consumer of materials you find on the Web. Quality and validity are not guaranteed when anyone can publish anything, anytime, without the benefit of scholarly peer review. Use this guide to analyze the web sites you find.

Handbooks

Tools

Citation Tools

These resources will attempt to format your citation for you. They will get you probably 80% of the way there,
but mistakes happen! Double check the citation with a handbook.

EndNote -   (Available as part of Web of Science database) Sign In | Register for Free - With EndNote the online bibliographic databases,  you can organize your references, images and PDFs in any language, and create bibliographies and figure lists instantly.

RefWorks -   Web-based bibliography and database manager that allows you to create your own personal database by importing references from text files or online databases and other various sources. You can use these references in writing papers and automatically format the paper and the bibliography in seconds

Write-N-Cite - Is a utility that allows users to run an abbreviated version of RefWorks in their word processor. It works with your word-processor to create citations while you are writing your paper. With Write-N-Cite, you can cite references in a manuscript instantly. There are multiple versions of Write-N-Cite available---depending on your preferred operating system.

Installing Write-N-Cite - Logon on to your RefWorks account, select Tools pull down menu and select Write-N-Write. Follow the instructions. You must have administrators rights to Install Write-N-Cite feature on your computer.

Cite While You Write  (also known as CWYW) is a key feature of EndNote. It allows you to access EndNote from within Microsoft Word to insert citations into your Word documents.  You can insert citations anytime during your writing process. 

You can also use Cite While You Write to insert images (figures) from an EndNote library into your Word documents. CWYW automatically builds a bibliography from the citations you insert. You can also create a list of figures.

Installing Cite While You Write Log on to your EndNote Account (http://www.myendnoteweb.com) and select Options. Select Download Installers from the Options menu and follow the instructions. You must have administrators’ rights to install the Cite While You Write feature on your computer.

 

Other Citation Tools

 Citation Style Guides

Other Resources

Presentations

Free Image Resources

Help
Many ways of getting different types of help

Writing Center - The Prairie View Writing Center is here to assist you!        

 Getting Feedback -  Feedback from someone else about your writing.

PV Writing Center Workshops  |  Library Workshops

PV Writing Consultants

Need to scan a picture or table for your paper? - Check in with the Reference Desk -  a scanner is available for you to use.

Ask a Librarian - By phone - (936) 261-1504 or by email askalibrarian@pvamu.edu

Assistance from the Northwest Houston Center - (713) 790-7282  by email at ejbrumfield@pvamu.edu

Access from home and off Campus - If you can log onto an University computer, you can access from home! 

 

Maintained by  Karl Henson, Library Webmaster
Updated 12/18/2012 

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